Righthaven Hit With Another Fee/Cost Award, This Time Nearly $120k–Righthaven v. DiBiase

By Eric Goldman

Righthaven LLC v. DiBiase, 2011 WL 5101938 (D. Nev. Oct. 26, 2011)

There’s really not much to say about this one. In a brief opinion that speaks for itself, Judge Hunt awarded nearly $120,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to DiBiase. Given that Righthaven pleaded poverty in response to the $34k fee award to Hoehn, I’m assuming they don’t have a spare $120k lying around either. For the reasons I expressed in my last blog post on Righthaven, “I feel no schadenfreude.”

Some open questions on my mind:

– when will Righthaven declare bankruptcy? Given that litigation is their business, it would be ironic if they found more litigation success in bankruptcy court than they found in any other court they’ve visited.

– will Stephens Media infuse Righthaven with more capital, or will it let Righthaven starve for cash?

– can defendants find a way to pierce Righthaven’s corporate veil and seek to get their fee award paid directly by Stephens Media and Steve Gibson personally? It seems to me that this possibility is not out of the question.

– will the cumulative attorneys’ fee awards against Righthaven exceed the total revenue it brought in from its litigation campaign? At this point, I would be surprised if it didn’t.

– if an appellate court does find some grounds to reverse on appeal, will Righthaven even be around to enjoy that new lease on life?

Prior blog coverage of the Righthaven fiasco:

* Colorado Judge Drills Righthaven and Awards Attorneys’ Fees–Righthaven v. Wolf

* Resetting the Righthaven Fiasco

* Righthaven Defendant Awarded $3,800 in Attorneys’ Fees–Righthaven v. Leon

* Recapping Righthaven Developments from the Past Two Weeks

* Righthaven Benchslapped in Ruling Saying It Lacks Standing–Righthaven v. Democratic Underground

* Another Defense-Favorable Righthaven Ruling–Righthaven v. Choudhry

* Republishing Entire Newspaper Story is Fair Use–Righthaven v. CIO

* Blogger Wins Fair Use Defense…On a Motion to Dismiss!–Righthaven v. Realty One